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Voltaire (and his social networks) [ Association ]

… called friend would remain sacred throughout his life. People > Association Mots-clés Friendship Worldliness celebrity networks Patronage theater Voltaire styled himself the ‘hermit of the Alps’ 1  in much of the correspondence he produced … contribute enormously towards shaping his personality. To understand the latter, we must explore the different social networks that structured Voltaire’s existence. At the age of ten, François-Marie Arouet, the future Voltaire, was … his long-time friends with an abundance of correspondence. We might borrow from Mark Granovetter’s theory on social networks, admittedly a little anachronistically, to refer to Voltaire’s relationships. Of the ‘weak’ and ‘strong’ …

Republic of Letters [ National & Transnational cultures / Reading & Writing ]

… Letters was an abstract intellectual community in the seventeenth and eighteenth-century that was comprised of numerous networks throughout Europe and the Americas. Correspondence was the defining feature of its existence, enabling the … and political news and pamphlets. But the erudite epistolary backbone of the Republic of Letters was also enriched by networks grounded in institutions. These included scholarly networks created by the academies, and social networks that met face-to-face, thanks to increased travel and social …

Giacomo Casanova [ Art and Literature / Travel ]

… some general conclusions about Casanova’s sociability, it is evident that he straddled several, more or less legitimate networks, demonstrating their interconnectedness in eighteenth-century culture. His memoir shows his sociability in all … interconnected worlds that he frequented. People > Art and Literature People > Travel Mots-clés London Theatre Gambling networks Finance aristocracy Companies adventurer Memoirs In his novel Icosameron (1787), organized as a narrative … count on personal charm, and an active sociability. No wonder, therefore, that establishing connections in varied social networks was his principal activity and source of revenue, and the main subject of his writing. Some such contacts were …

Salons [ Associational culture ]

… and patronage. Practices > Associational culture Mots-clés Salon Enlightenment Philosophes Salon hostess France networks Patronage The salon is one of the most recognizable practices of sociability of the French Enlightenment, even … hosting such a salon was significant, and indeed proved an obstacle to many despite their close ties with philosophical networks, as was the case for Madame d’Épinay and Françoise de Graffigny. (Lilti 93-98, 177) Some salon hostesses found a … Summers Edmondson, ‘Julie de Lespinasse and the “philosophical” salon’, in Chloe Edmondson and Dan Edelstein (eds.) Networks of Enlightenment: Digital Approaches to the Republic of Letters (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, Oxford …

Grand Tour [ Mobility / Education ]

… Formation elite masculinity tourism Travel diplomacy academies Politeness Court Salon Cosmopolitanism Continental networks The Grand Tour was a form of educational travel undertaken by young aristocratic and gentry men. Travel and … enable Grand Tourists and their families to continue consolidating and expanding on their continental socio-political networks. A typical starting point for attaining the skills was to attend an academy. Initially founded by … For writers and thinkers, travel and the sociability therein acted as an important means of expanding professional networks and becoming part of the republic of letters. In 1764, for example, Adam Smith resigned his chair of Moral …

James Byres [ Travel ]

… of the British Grand Tourists and artists who visited Rome.   People > Travel Mots-clés Grand Tour Italy Education Art networks Jacobitism The Scotsman James Byres lived for over thirty years in Rome, where he became one of the main players … in 1790. Each of these activities depended on the other and enabled him to become a central link in the artistic networks in Rome and Britain. As a guide, he showed the city to travellers on the Grand Tour, to whom he also often … Byres’s main rival. Byres took advantage of his status as a guide and an artist to enrich his local and international networks. He became a reference on the Roman and British art markets. For instance, in 1780, the Welsh painter Thomas …